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President Obama was incredulous when he was first briefed in early January 2017 about the contents of a dossier, prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele, alleging that the Kremlin had a videotape of Trump engaging in sordid sexual behavior with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room. “Why am I hearing this?” he asked his national security adviser, Susan Rice. “Why is this happening?” Rice explained that the intelligence community had no idea if the claim was true but that Obama needed to be aware that the allegation was circulating. A few days later, when Vice President Joe Biden was briefed about intelligence reports on contacts between various players in the Trump orbit and the Kremlin, he had a visceral reaction. “If this is true, it’s treason,” Biden exclaimed.

On Aug. 8, 2016, Stone said: “I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation but there’s no telling what the October surprise may be.”

Monday, he again denied that he had any advance notice, “I said, ‘I think I will go to London for the weekend and meet with Julian Assange.’ It was a joke, a throwaway line to get him off the phone."

In a September 2017 appearance before the House Intelligence Committee, Stone stated
“Such assertions are conjecture, supposition, projection, and allegations but none of them are facts,”

He says things that no reasonable person would say.
Then denies saying them or pretends they were jokes.

This recurring methodology with the 'conspiracy to defraud' crowd is too thin to not see through.

If you watch the documentary about Roger Stone, they briefly explain one controversy:

"a personal ad he and his wife had taken out in a swinger magazine and website called Local Swinger Fever. The ad read: Hot, insatiable lady and her handsome body builder husband, experienced swingers, seek similar couples or exceptional muscular ... single men."

Then they cut to tape of him on TV denying it, followed by tape of him admitting it.

I was shocked and horrified but it’s been a great teaching resource for showing how easily crowds are manipulated. It’s the values of this crew that are the issue. They are completely removed from the values most decent people hold. I didn’t ever quite get it until this Trump presidency.

He says things that no reasonable person would say.
Then denies saying them or pretends they were jokes.

This is exactly why people are (rightfully) so upset with Trump “joking” about getting rid of term limits. Because damn near all of his “jokes” are barely-veiled attempts to test the reaction to what he’s “joking” about.

"Just joking" is just a tactic to get all this authoritarian bullshit normalized. Bigotry, too. Think of all the racism, anti-semitism, misogyny, etc., that people try to handwave away as "irony" or "satire" or "fighting political correctness."

An interesting added twist to this is that Stone has been stringing along Infowars too. He claimed to Alex Jones he was in direct contact with Wikileaks and on a couple of live shows they openly say they are waiting for the big release of Clinton info from Wikileaks. I'm not 100% sure if he was telling the truth or not. He had too many reasons to lie about the contacts and he is a pathological liar. But there would be a certain justice in Stone getting prosecuted for lies he told to Alex Jones.

Knowing Stone's history as a dirty tricks guy going back to Nixon, I'd be amazed if he didn't contact Assange. Assange is a perfect dirty tricks asset - a famous leaker of political dirt who's in major personal trouble.

I think he was acting as a key conduit between the Trump campaign and Wikileaks. The real question is, was he also a conduit with Russian actors. There are some intriguing things. His close personal assistant was arrested last year for advertising money laundering services and it appears he made a plea deal to supply info to the Feds. We don't know what he revealed. He appears to be a strange shady character, who claimed he worked for a private Intelligence agency.

He is gonna really regret constantly falling back on that line for two straight years. None of these old fucks are as slick as they think. He puts up this whole charade but with that one sentence he is basically saying “I am aware that what you are alleging is treason.”

He told this person that Assange had said Wikileaks had "emails that would torment senior Democrats such as John Podesta".

He separately told Nunberg, around the same time, that he was travelling to meet Assange. Stone now says this was a joke.

Stone made many comments in around fall 2016, about communicating with Assange / Wikleaks or forthcoming document dumps. All have been previously reported. This is far earlier - and before hacks were publicly known.

Context suggests Stone knew not only of the hacks but that disclosure was coming soon. That is, he knew what Papadopoulos was told on April 26 - emails had been hacked and would be disseminated to help Trump.

Edit - WaPo has this straight from the horse's mouth. Its source is the person Stone had this conversation with.

Edit - to get an idea of timing:

March 19 - Podesta spearphishing attack by GRU (Russian military intel). DNC hacks ongoing at around same time.

April 26 - Prof Mifsud tells Papadopoulos Russians have Hillary's emails and plan to anonymously release them to help Trump.

Assange is such a complicit scumbag in all of this. And he and WikiLeaks kept lying to all of us saying they were non-partisan and it was such clear bullshit but people back in the day still had hope that they were legit. Fuck people who destroy hope and erode people's capacity to trust.

The beautiful irony is that these fuckers told on themselves. And they did it digitally and in an officially time stamped manner. Watching it play out, I remember the day after the election, an old friend’s mom said there was something fishy and off about the whole thing. She is one of the most rational and not at all tin foil hat type people I’ve known. How right she was.

I really don't see how they aren't caught dead to rights with what is already publicly known. With what has to be a trove of Mueller info, I'm going to be seriously disappointed with anything less than lots of prison time for most of these bastards.

I love the "What Polls?" joke but it actually kinda hurts since Trump ended up winning. Whether that win was legitimate or not, that's something else, but it does take some of the bite out of it. Fortunately we still have plenty of other memes like the guy from Roy Moores campaign who said Muslims couldn't swear in on a Bible and got completely and utterly destroyed.

Does anyone else get the feeling that sources told the Washington Post "Spring" so that when Stone or others issue specific denials that they can leak more specific damaging information?

I somehow doubt this is unrelated to Nunes shutting down the house intelligence committee investigation. Just like when Comey was fired - if the Republicans shut down the credible investigations and suborn the rule of law, sources will leak to the press.

Or the source just figures that Stone probably told several people over a range of time before the releases and by keeping the date vague it makes it harder for Stone to pin down who spoke to The Post.

Fuck the House Republicans for stopping the investigation into collusion. More and more evidence of collusion is coming out every day. They are blatantly covering up for Trump. This is betraying the country at the highest levels, SMH.

I lived in Bethel Park for years and still know a couple people in Upper St. Clair, so that's my reason for watching. But yeah, it's really weird to see the president and everyone else losing their minds over it when it's just going to get redistricted anyway.

Right? Never let this become normalized. This is a visceral reaction to the horror show that is our current sitting GOP congresspeople & president. Once they are gone things should hopefully be able to calm down a lot...we can't let that cause us to become complacent in our security as we did over the 8 years of Obama though :/

The Isikoff and Corn book looks like a great read. Recall too that Corn knew about the dossier back in October prior to the election. They both have been on this for some time, they have great sources, and I recommend watching the Maddow interview with them both last night.

[New scene begins with dozens of black SUVs swarming Roger Stone's house. Agents rush in and immediately bust down the door. Lead agent of movie (KIEFER SUTHERLAND) quickly works his way through the house with his pistol drawn, other agents closely following. SUTHERLAND silently points over to a door down a far hallway where light is shining underneath and funky music is heard coming from. He motions to another agent and begins counting down. He kicks door and bursts in]

SUTHERLAND: "FBI! Put your hands up!"

[Camera pans into room to see one ROGER STONE naked in front of a camera, filming a strong muscular man balls deep in his wife on the bed. Wife screams and runs out. Strong muscular man covers up while SUTHERLAND tackles STONE to the ground. Nixon memorabilia scatters through the room in the chaos.]

This is the difference between a fake conspiracy and a real one involving lots of people: a fake one increasingly draws in more people that must keep a story straight and remain silent about the supposed truth and yet somehow do so; a real one draws in more people that say stupid shit, tell all their friends about it, and get caught in lies contradicting themselves and other members of the conspiracy and the truth eventually reveals itself.

I remember seeing something where Ted Kennedy was asked about the conspiracy theories regarding JFK's assassination a couple of decades or more after it happened. His response was something along the lines of, "I know they're not true because Washington, DC can't keep a secret this long."

It has been reported that Farage acted as a cut out between Stone and Assange. I'd be extremely surprised if Mueller hasn't either interviewed him or intends to. What's the position regarding a non-US citizen? Can Farage just refuse to co-operate?

What's the position regarding a non-US citizen? Can Farage just refuse to co-operate?

Yes.

If Mueller decides to subpoena him, he may run into trouble entering the US, but as long as he stays out of the US, there's no problem. If an indictment lands, then it'll depend on extradition treaties and such.

Anyone can refuse a voluntary interview, but if they do, they can be subpoenaed. That includes foreigners as well, though if they're out of the country, concessions can be made to have them interview elsewhere. Remember, Alex Van Der Zwack is a foreign lawyer who was arrested and pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

However, if Farage completely ignores it or tells Mueller to sod off, he can expect a bench warrant for his arrest. Next time he tries to enter the United States, or cross any border that is friendly with us, he could be in for a very bad weekend.

Fuck the House Republicans for stopping the investigation into collusion. More and more evidence of collusion is coming out every day. They are blatantly covering up for Trump. This is betraying the country at the highest levels, SMH.

Schiff and the Democrats are documenting the "open" items that they were stymied on in this sham effort and report. If they take control of the House this year I'm sure it will be high on committee chairman Schiff's agenda to follow up on those items.

On Aug. 8, 2016, in an appearance at the Southwest Broward Republican Organization, Stone answered a question about what he believed would be the campaign’s October surprise by saying: “I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation, but there’s no telling what the October surprise may be.”

He later said he had not meant that he had communicated with Assange directly.

On Aug. 21, Stone tweeted that something grim was looming for Podesta.

“Trust me, it will soon [be] the Podesta’s time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary,” he tweeted.

On Oct. 3, he tweeted: “I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon #LockHerUp.”

“Payload coming. #Lockthemup,” Stone tweeted on Oct. 5.

Two days later, WikiLeaks published a cache of Podesta’s hacked emails describing internal conflicts within the Clinton Foundation and excerpts of Clinton’s speeches to Wall Street executives.

The release came shortly after The Post revealed the existence of an “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump described grabbing women by the genitals.

Stone also exchanged private Twitter messages with WikiLeaks that month. In one Oct. 13 exchange, he described himself as a defender of the organization and objected to its “ strategy of attacking me,” the Atlantic reported this year. WikiLeaks replied to Stone in a private message that “false claims of association” were being used by Democrats to undermine the group.

Stone answered: “You need to figure out who your friends are.”

Assange and Stone said the messages prove he did not have any advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans.

“A message telling Roger Stone to cease falsely suggesting contact with WikiLeaks is now the claimed proof that Roger Stone had contact with WikiLeaks — when it proves what I’ve said all along,” Assange tweeted last month.

Wow. So Stone said publicly that he has communicated with Assange, but that he didn't know about the document dumps. But just days before the dumps, said that he "has a feeling" it's going to be related to Podesta and the Clinton Foundation and excerpts of Clinton's speeches to Wall Street, and even said the approximate time when the leak would happen and SHOCKER that's exactly what the document leaks were about and that's exactly when he 'predicted' they'd be leaked.

Oh and he was caught privately messaging Wikileaks, but in Stone's mind - it actually proves he didn't know anything in advance. L O fucking L. Good luck using that defense.

Then later, in August, Stone does something truly remarkable when he predicts that John Podesta’s personal emails will soon be published. “Trust me,” he says, “it will soon be Podesta’s time in the barrel. #crookedHillary.” In the weeks that follow, Stone shows remarkable prescience. “I have total confidence that WikiLeaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon,” he says, #LockHerUp.” “Payload coming,” he predicts and two days later it does.

August 21, 3016 tweet: “Trust me, it will soon [be] Podesta’s time in the barrel.”

September 16, Boston Herald Radio: “Julian Assange and the Wikileaks people to drop a payload of new documents on a weekly basis fairly soon. And that of course will answer the question of exactly what was erased on that email server. [...] I am in touch with him [Assange] through an intermediary.”

October 1, tweet: “Wednesday @HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks”

October 12, local Florida radio station: “[I have a] back channel communication with Assange because we have a good mutual friend. That friend travels back and forth between the US and London and we talk. I had dinner with him last Monday.”